ILLINOIS
Effingham Daily News
Monday, May 4, 2015
Bill Grimes Daily News
A nationally known advocate for victims of clerical sex abuse said it’s not surprising that Catholics in parishes served by the Rev. Robert “Bud” DeGrand have offered almost universal support to the embattled priest, who was permanently removed from his pastoral duties over the weekend.
“They almost always are beloved by their congregations,” said David Clohessy, national director for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, based in St. Louis.
DeGrand served as the pastor of parishes in Sigel, Neoga, Green Creek and Lillyville since 1999. He had been on administrative leave while church leaders reviewed allegations of sexual abuse from the early 1980s, while DeGrand was serving a parish in Jacksonville.
DeGrand has never been charged with a crime. Messages seeking comment, conveyed to DeGrand through a former church trustee in Sigel, were not returned.
Clohessy said Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Springfield Diocese did not go far enough by just removing DeGrand from public ministry on Saturday.
“They do the absolute minimum and don’t do it well,” Clohessy said.
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